{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Electoral Votes

This is the third in a little series of posts about the election.  Read my thoughts on teaching about the election to children and our non-partisan election sign here!

Teaching about electoral votes is really fun- it is a lot like a game, which kids understand.  It also gets into geography and math, as well as social studies.  Truly a integrated topic.

Sooo...how to teach about electoral votes?  Here's what we've been doing:

First, we played an election game I made...we paired up basic questions and answers about the election.

Then we talked about how voting works- that whoever gets the most votes is the winner of his or her state.  BUT, that to elect the president, we don't just count all the votes in the whole country.  Instead, we use electoral votes.

I printed off a few copies of this map, and we identified the states and how many electoral votes each state has.  We discussed how the number of electoral votes are based on how many people live in that state.  Oftentimes a bigger state has more people living there, but not always.  For example, Alaska is huge, but only has 3 electoral votes.  New York is not so big, but so many people live there that they get 31 electoral votes.

Next we played a mock election.  We took turns deciding if the democrats or republicans would win each state and colored each state blue or red (note, these are completely random predictions!)  

We totaled up the number of electoral votes that the democrats and republicans earned based off of our map, and discovered the winner.

Lastly, we turned to the Internet to look for some election predictions.  We particularly liked this website that has its predictions mapped out and even lets the kids decide some of the swing states and watch the tallies change.  I'm sure there are lots of good sites out there.  

We are going to print out another electoral vote map for Tuesday night and stay up eating popcorn and coloring in states as the election results are returned.  Lots of fun!  Happy Election!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

An Election Sign

Following my blog post on teaching children about the election in a non-partisan way, I thought that I would share a project we've been working on.  We have been on the hunt for election signs...searching out the car windows and finding them while biking around the neighborhood.  We count them, talk about what color they are, what the names of the candidates are, guess at who might have put them out.  Today we decided to make our OWN election sign for our front yard.  Rather than back a particular candidate, we made a sign reminding people to vote on Tuesday.  The Election happens to fall on Matias' birthday this year- so he is particularly excited to have NOVEMBER 6th on the sign.

Here are the steps:

Gather red, white, blue and yellow paint, some sort of sign (weather-proof it you plan to put it outside) and acrylic sealer.

Print off an American flag from Google Images and trace it onto the wood with a pencil (push hard).

Paint the sign white, including the flag, except for the blue star portion.

Using blue painter's tape, section off the stripes and paint in the red and blue.  Add 50 yellow dots for stars. 

Paint your message on the sign- I wrote it in pencil and Matias painted over it.

We used a hair dryer to dry the paint as we went along so we didn't have to wait.  Spray the sign with acrylic sealer, let it dry and display it proudly.

Those Hours Before Trick or Treat

I guess there is no better day to discuss "The Witching Hour" than Halloween: those hours between nap (if you're lucky) and trick or treating.

Here is a quick, easy, use-what-you-have-on-hand way to kill some time and get in the Halloween mood...a Halloween bath.  I've talked before about play baths...we decided to put a holiday spin on it.

Here is what we did...use what you have laying around and have fun!

-Orange crepe paper "web"
-foam pumpkins
-hair gel/googly eye squishy bag on the wall
-orange and white balloons- pumpkins and ghosts
-spider and skeleton rings
-shaving cream "ghosts" in the water
-glow sticks in the tub (this is really the best part)
-orange and black paint mixed with shaving cream (so it washes up easily)
-battery operated votive candles
-a bit of Halloween music (thank you pandora!)

Set the stage- I don't let the kids come in until it is all ready- the suspense is half of the fun.

monster faces

There is no better place for paint than the tub!

Happy Halloween!

Thoughts on the Election

Matt and I were discussing how to teach the kiddos about the election.  The obvious stuff like what is a ballot, a candidate, a vote...and then less obvious stuff like what should a president be like.  We came up with things like wise, thoughtful, careful, honest, peaceful, firm, fair and trustworthy.  

To be honest, I am feeling good about our current president...I feel that I can put him up in front of my kids as someone who does his best to embody those presidential characteristics while doing a very difficult job.  His policies may not be perfect, he may not have made as much change as hoped for, but I truly believe that he is a good man. He will have my vote, as he did four years ago...when Matt and I walked down to Grant Park with our baby boy to celebrate his victory.  I still believe that he is the current best choice for America- as I did when I sat with my African American students on the West side of Chicago and celebrated the inauguration of a man who looked like them.

That said, I am not "campaigning" for him too much in front of my kids.  It is humbling to look at the election through the eyes of a four year old who is not yet jaded or full of self-interest.  I believe you have to teach kids about politics in a way that first allows them to trust in our leaders and the democratic process before you introduce them to partisanship and negativity.  They must buy into democracy before it will be important to them; they must have a vision of government at its best before they can work to make that a reality.  No matter who wins, I want them to feel safe and secure that our country is in good hands.  

So no, my kids won't be canvassing the neighborhood.  They will, however, be learning about both candidates, spying election signs out the car window and GOING WITH ME TO VOTE.  The most important thing for us is that they learn to participate in democracy...and that they develop the wisdom to continue to participate in the future in whatever way they see fit.  

Happy Election Season 2012.  May we all come together to support our candidates but remember that in the end, the fact that we live in a democratic society where we have the right to debate, argue and VOTE makes us all winners.

Grant Park, 2008 with Matias...exactly 1 year old.

Dancing on the outhouses...that's the kind of passion we should all have!

Inauguration Day

    

Garden Journal #9

Violet's garden in October

Cleaning up

Planting bulbs

Summer in a bowl!

Surprise pumpkin!

The gourd vine was VERY happy 

The garden has nearly come to an end this year.  We had a pretty decent crop...and really enjoyed how involved the kids were this year.  Had no problems going fence-less.  The watering system was handy, but it didn't seem to water the beds very evenly, nor did we use the water from the rain barrel as much as in past years.  Back to the drawing board for some revisions.  The only total failure was the broccoli.  The pepper plants we planted from seed never yielded anything, but the ones we bought as plants did great.  Next year I want to plant the herbs right into the ground so I don't have to remember to water them separately...they didn't do well, through no fault of their own!  The strawberries managed a few little ripe berries, but not a ton.  The biggest surprises of the year were the pumpkin and gourds that magically appeared...likely seeded from the ones we chucked into the compost last year.  So our front yard has a nice little fall decoration, and we have a jack-o-lantern waiting to be carved.  

Violet's garden has been tilled and we planted a bunch of bulbs and flower seeds...in conjunction with reading Miss Rumphius.  Hopefully Spring will bring us beautiful tulips, daffs, iris and crocus (though I did see a squirrel having a little snack of bulbs out there before we covered the bed with leaf mulch).  We may even get some lupine from the seeds we scattered.  Time will tell!

We are still getting a few red tomatoes from the vines, kale, and we haven't yet harvested our carrots or beets.  Our neighbors took down a huge tree in their backyard, so next year our garden will have a lot more sun- yea!  I am not usually pro tree cutting, but this was not a particularly nice tree- it just dropped millions on leaves on our yard starting in about July.  It is always fun to look ahead to what next year will bring...before we're even done enjoying the veggies from this year!  As always, Matt will spend the winter dreaming up new irrigation systems...but he promised he won't make us move any more garden beds next year :)  Happy Fall!